East Dorset beat Southport 4-3

[<<] [>>] by Chris Weedon at Northampton
29 Sep (AC - Longman Cup)

LONGMAN CUP FINAL

East Dorset beat Southport 4-3, to win the Longman Cup for the first time since 2005

Venue: Northampton Croquet Club

Weather: Beautiful, but getting cloudier during the day

Courts: Good. Neither too fast nor too slow

Match info: Time: All matches 3hr 15

Handicap: Difference

Teams and handicaps

East Dorset: Chris Weedon (capt) 4
Christine Rice 6
Mike Rice 6
John Freeman 16

Southport:
Bill Nicholl (capt) 7
Peter Williams 9
Eddie Green 10
David Venables 10

Results (ED first):
Chris and Mike (trad) lost to Bill and David (ASD) 9-18
John beat Peter 26-1
Christine beat Eddie 18-17

Chris lost to Bill 21-22
Christine lost to Peter 20-26
Mike beat Eddie 20-16
John beat David 26-6

In the doubles, Chris and Mike started to fall behind early on, and the gap only increased throughout the game. Neither player strung a break together, despite some good hitting in, followed by a lack of consolidation!

John won convincingly, using his bisques well. Sadly, Peter barely scored, though this was to change in his second game!

Christine went 16-1 down to Eddie, but pulled back to win +1 in an extraordinary recovery. That gave East Dorset a 2-1 lead at lunch.

John continued his morning form, and again used his bisques really well, and won his second game of the day.

Christine was starting to catch up in her game, but lost out -6 to Peter, who had clearly had Shredded Wheat for lunch after his morning defeat.

Mike was 16-1 down to Eddie, as Christine had been to him in the morning. But he also came out on top, also winning on time. It was the good news that East Dorset wanted... they had won the Cup after two years of coming second.

Chris had been behind in his game from the start, but playing better than he did in the morning, and twice brought the scores level. Indeed with a couple of minutes to go he was 1up. However Bill hit in and scored 2 hoops and sent a ball to each corner... game over! Time for tea and cakes.

Thanks are due to:

Southport, for being worthy and sporting opponents. It could have gone either way.

Paul Shard, from Northampton CC for managing the game in all aspects

Lionel Tibble, for refereeing wisely

The ladies, whoever they were, for baking the cakes.

and Hilary, who continues to manage the Longman year after year.